Tears and Unseen Traffic
by friendlyneighborhoodfairy
Summary: Mirajane meets smart, snarky Evergreen and immediately hits it off with her. Really, really hits it off. Problem is, her brother likes Evergreen too. {Mirever/Everjane and Elfever; sibling rivalry. Very angsty.}


**A/N: **Angst galore. You've been warned.

* * *

**Tears and Unseen Traffic**

Mira drives home clutching her steering wheel hard enough to strangle it.

_Isn't this fun? The whole family!_

Yes, Elfman, this is fun. Watching you two coo and cuddle and schmooze is so much fun.

Watching Ever look so happy and beautiful… Having her come over and ask how life is, talking to her and making her smile, her effervescent smile all to oneself—her sarcastic wit making you laugh uncontrollably. Because she's perfect.

And then her boyfriend walks up and wraps his arm around her, and you have to pretend to be happy for them because he's your brother and it's petty to be jealous.

As she rolls up to a stoplight, Mira smacks the wheel. "Dammit!"

Older siblings are supposed to look out for the younger. Protect their happiness. Guide them through life's thornier lessons. _You_ are supposed to get the girl first, and then he gets his own girl later.

He isn't allowed to be engaged at twenty-four. That's insane. Who does that? Nobody's ready for marriage at twenty-four; you're still changing so much.

When a sob breaks out, angry tears stream down Mira's cheeks. It's hard to see the road: she scrubs at her face. Here she is, heading home to her lonely apartment to spend another lonely night tossing and turning with stupid insomnia because there's _nothing she can do._ It's over. It's decided. She has no say. And the person she thought she wanted most in life…it's out of her grasp now. Forever.

Swerving, she narrowly avoids hitting the median and jabs her finger at the music player, twisting the volume up so the angry Korean metal can fill the car and make her feel, at least a tiny bit, like her emotions aren't impotent things that exist only to strangle her.

* * *

Mira is the one who first met Evergreen. It was at a birthday party for a friend—Evergreen was one of the housemates. While they didn't mix much during the party itself, Mira stayed later to help clean up, and that's when she discovered Evergreen's amazing repertoire of ironic humor. She speaks sarcasm like it's a second language, and Mira, who loves everyone and tries to always make people comfortable on their own level, loves when she can actually engage with that level of wit.

Two weeks later she's already reached a point where she can hardly get Evergreen out of her head. They hit it off so well that they got coffee a few times, and then they were regularly running into each other around their tiny college town…

Mira, still feeling Evergreen out about relationships—after all, she had time: she wanted things to go deeper, to get to know her better, to increase their comfort level with each other…

Mira made the mistake of introducing Evergreen to her family.

Such a stupid, stupid thing. Elfman and Lisanna came to visit her on a long weekend. And they've always been so close. She wanted to get their opinion on this woman she's so invested in, and she wanted Ever to get to meet the people who mean the most to her in the world. To see this side of her.

Some part of her must have sensed it. That Ever and Elfman had a connection. Ever mentioned him a few times in conversation. And then, in a phone call a week later, Elfman casually mentioned he and Ever had been texting.

The texting increased in frequency, until Mira couldn't even hang out with Ever without the subject of Elfman coming up, if not the man himself texting in the middle of their coffee and always getting a smile from Evergreen. Ever asked more and more pointed questions about Mira's brother, and Mira didn't have the heart to let her brother down—she couldn't, didn't know how, to be a bad big sister…

That was two years ago. Now there's a ring on Ever's finger and Mira has learned so perfectly how to smile that she made it through the engagement party without a single grimace. Ever counts her as a best friend, and Elfman is her brother…surely she must be thrilled for them.

When she gets home, she's too sick to her stomach to think of eating—she hasn't had anything since lunch, but maybe that's okay. She kneels by the toilet, feeling like throwing up, and there she cries and shakes and curls her fingers into claws that can do no damage, never bring back to her the one person she wants.

She has lost. She knows that. She doesn't know how to pick herself back up again.

Elfman wins. Go fuck yourself, brother. Go fuck your stupid girlfriend, you asshole, and don't you dare tell me how wonderful your relationship is because I. Don't. Care.

Mira cries until she feels like a dried-out husk. Then she drags herself to bed and falls asleep with lonely tears drying on her cheeks.

Alone. It's all she'll ever be.

* * *

**A/N: **For now this is a oneshot. I'm going to add a happy Canajane ending, but it'll be a while. I'm not used to leaving things without a happy ending, but I just really needed to get this out.


End file.
